Back here in Wales, the UK Border Agency have been very busy trying to (and often succeeding) ruin people’s lives. As usual the defence of their intrusive activities would be funny if it were not so tragic. The forcing apart of a married couple, was, in the words of their spokesperson “to protect young people” and to made sure they “receive the help and support they need”. At present the couple are legally entitled to live together anywhere in the EU, except the UK.

The recently produced first issue of the No Borders South Wales Newsletter, made the news in it’s own right yesterday when Media Wales published an article under the headline: ‘Asylum campaigners launch newsletter‘ then followed it up with a a link to this very website! Three cheers for David James of South Wales Echo, a fantastic bit of free publicity!

ASYLUM campaigners who opposed the deportation of late Ghanaian cancer sufferer Ama Sumani and are fighting on behalf of several other asylum seekers, have produced their first newsletter.

The group, called No Borders South Wales, kicked off their first two-page newsletter with a report about a protest outside the Border and Immigration Agency regional headquarters on Newport Road, Cardiff, last Wednesday.

The group plans to hold monthly similar pickets as it fights the deportation of other South Wales-resident asylum seekers including pregnant Nigerian Kemi Ayinde who, as a teenager, was trafficked into the UK to work as a child prostitute.

This Wednesday 20th August at 12 noon, No Borders South Wales will be holding one of our regular pickets outside the UK Border Agency offices on Newport Road, Cardiff. (map)

These are the offices where people made the decision to deport Ama Sumani to her death, who tried to deport Kemi and Taiwo and their baby, who has put Jean Pierre in detention, who refused BB the right to remain, where the snatch squads leave from, where local asylum seekers have to sign and are treated like criminals.

We hang banners, hold placards and distribute leaflets to draw attention to the activities of the UK Border Agency. The pickets only last for an hour, between 12noon and 1pm, so take your lunch break from work, study or whatever else with us to demonstrate your solidarity with migrants and show that we won’t tolerate the brutal practises that take place inside the building!

A demonstration was held on saturday 19th April in Cardiff, Queen Street in memory of Ama Sumani who died on March 19th after being deported from hospital in Cardiff during treatment for myeloma, a cancer affecting the bone marrow. Ama leaves two children aged 16 and 7.

This case not only shows a total lack of compassion, it suggests a vindictive cruelty in the methodology of the BIA. It is horrific that someone receiving treatment vital to their survival can be removed from hospital against their will. What is chilling is that this is the operational practice of a government funded executive agency.

Please come along to the next picket of the Border and Immigration Agency on Tuesday 12th February at 12 noon.

This is the agency responsible for removing a terminally ill Ghanain woman from her hospital bed in Cardiff and forcing her to return to a country where she cannot afford the treatment that will extend her life.

On 9th January, Ama Sumani, a terminally ill Ghanaian mother of two was denied medical care for her cancer at University Hospital, Cardiff and subsequently deported. The decision has been widely and strongly criticised by the UK medical profession, with the medical journal `The Lancet’ stating that

“the UK has committed an atrocious barbarism”.

A doctor treating Ama at the hospital stressed to the immigration authorities that they were sending her to her death. Ama now has to fund her own kidney dialysis in Accra at £50 a day, without which she would die within 2 weeks. Most of the vital medication that was given by Welsh doctors for Ama to take home with her was taken by a UK government Doctor, leaving her Read the rest of this entry »